How to Use petty in a Sentence

petty

adjective

• My behavior was petty and stupid. I apologize.
• The dirty streets, the petty crime, the eerily silent transit stations.
  — Heather Knight, New York Times, 28 Dec. 2023
• Emails have piled up and my phone is abuzz with petty gossip.
  — Sarah Gillespie, Travel + Leisure, 15 May 2023
• Not in a malicious sense, of course — more a petty one.
  — Sheldon Pearce, NPR, 13 June 2024
• Part of me feels that this would be petty and vindictive.
  — R. Eric Thomas, Washington Post, 31 July 2024
• Or, in this case, about science and not the petty problems of earthlings.
  — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 9 July 2024
• Were there any other ideas, in terms of petty acts of revenge, that didn't make the final cut?
  — Jessica Wang, EW.com, 10 Apr. 2023
• As in much of the rest of the region, petty corruption is rampant.
  — Staff Writer, The Christian Science Monitor, 6 Jan. 2022
• For some in the agency, shakedowns of petty drug dealers are understood to be a perk of the job.
  — Andy Greenberg, WIRED, 1 Nov. 2022
• The full Moon of the 5th tunes you in to dreams, faraway places and vision quests—so ignore petty annoyances that are in the air.
  — Katharine Merlin, Town & Country, 1 Feb. 2023
• To be that hostile and petty — to friends, no less, who are feeding them dinner — sounds deeply jerky to me.
  — Carolyn Hax, Washington Post, 5 May 2023
• But that had all been chipped away by petty jealousies and vicious fights.
  — refinery29.com, 13 Apr. 2022
• Oh, how low the men of Westeros stoop in their petty grasps for power.
  — Lauren Puckett-Pope, ELLE, 17 Oct. 2022
• Bernhardt had worked at one of those plants, had a record there of petty theft, and had training as a blacksmith.
  — Joshua Hammer, Town & Country, 28 Jan. 2022
• The gossip or petty stuff is just a waste of time and is almost like an infection.
  — Stephen Gerard, Forbes, 29 Nov. 2023
• There were deep convos, petty fights, and sky-high heels galore.
  — Korin Miller, Women's Health, 17 Aug. 2023
• For some of them, that means driving down petty crime at places central to their daily lives.
  — Paul Duggan, Washington Post, 28 July 2023
• The tension mounts, and soon husband and wife are having an ugly, petty fight.
  — Alan Sepinwall, Rolling Stone, 24 Nov. 2023
• What’s more, fuel theft is not a crime that’s limited to just petty thieves.
  — Jim Gorzelany, Forbes, 18 July 2022
• In a sequel from the two-time Pulitzer winner, Ray Carney is pulled back into petty crime.
  — The California Independent Booksellers Alliance, Los Angeles Times, 6 Sep. 2023
• Violators would be guilty of a petty offense and face a $50 fine.
  — Brieanna J. Frank, USA TODAY, 30 June 2023
• Ma said business owners in the area, including him, have dealt with robberies and petty thefts over the years.
  — Louis Casiano, Fox News, 3 Sep. 2022
• And by throwing shade this week, Anthony wound up looking a heck of a lot more petty than the Nuggets ever did.
  — Sean Keeler, The Denver Post, 13 Jan. 2024
• The leader of the British crew had reacted to this petty crime by shooting not only the thief but also a second Māori man.
  — Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker, 1 Apr. 2024
• And what celebrity is petty enough to spend millions of dollars — and years of their lives — airing their own dirty laundry?
  — Daniel Novack, The Hollywood Reporter, 23 Sep. 2022
• And her scheming goes far beyond these kinds of playful, albeit petty jabs at the people who have caused her harm.
  — Annabel Gutterman, Time, 21 Oct. 2022
• No one feels safe walking the streets, and petty insults are reason enough for someone to start shooting.
  — Charles McNulty, Los Angeles Times, 11 Apr. 2024
• This is all kind of petty and mean but also a little relatable.
  — Roxane Gay, New York Times, 3 Feb. 2023
• Things continued to build steam when Drake and Ross continued to exchange petty shots on Instagram about each other’s houses, financial status, and more.
  — Regina Cho, VIBE.com, 13 Sep. 2024
• The first hour is a slow accumulation of the petty crimes (and other various insults) that the internet allows people to commit against one another from a distance, and with the benefit of anonymity.
  — Ryan Lattanzio, IndieWire, 18 Sep. 2024

Last Updated: 9 Jun 2024